Factory built homes or prefabricated homes (e.g., manufactured home, modular homes, mobile homes, and the like) are quite often built with roof or attic designs that provides a limited amount of space. This space may be so limited that it may not be practical for an individual to climb into the attic and move around. As such, these attics often lack an access hatch that permits access to the attic from within the home. The roofs/attics are often built with limited space because the home and/or roof is often transported by road from a manufacturing facility to a job site where the home components are assembled to form the home. The designers are often constrained as to the height of the roof and/or home because the roof and/or home may be required to pass under one or more bridges, walkways, or overpasses, such as a freeway overpass. The height of the roof and/or home may be further constrained in other ways as well.
Such attics are often insulated using a loose fill insulation material that is often blown into the attic space. Because of the limited space within the attic, the amount of loose fill insulation that may be applied is limited, often to as little as 3 inches at the heel and 11 inches or less at the peak. This little insulation often provides an R value of approximately 30 or less, which provides moderate to inadequate insulation for the home and may result in fairly expensive heating and/or cooling bills, especially in extreme temperature conditions. Other components of factory built or prefabricated homes are also insulated, such as walls, floors, and the like and may suffer from similar problems.
Demand for factory built or prefabricated homes remains high. As such there remains a need for increasing the energy efficiency of prefabricated homes and improved methods of insulating components of factory built or prefabricated homes, especially for insulating space limited components, such as attics.